Chapter 274
Chapter 274
Elara’s POV
“Say you are staying.”
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Thorne did not sit. In the council room he was standing with the window open to the yard. The smell of soup drifted in. The little bowl flame was at the far wall. He did not look at it. He carried a piece of leather tube and a piece of creased paper.
“I cannot,” he said.
“Then tell me why,” I said.
O, because my house owes blood, said he. And?—because my Beta made holes in your walls. Since my name continues to divide a room. I have broken what I clean or I have no right to the oath I gave.
Vessa stood at the side of the door, quiet. Mira stood with her shield behind. Elder Briar sat there at the table with a pen and wax. Cael was not here. He was sure it was that talk of mine.
I walked closer. “You already swore to me. Direstone stands at my left. The vow is clean.”
“The vow stands,” he said. “The man must leave.”
I stopped an arm’s length away. Noble like a coward thou hide.
He grimaced, and grinned unjoyfully. And as long as it helps your wolves not pick at old bones, you may have the name.
Elder Briar cleared his throat. Give the transfer where ready.
Thorne placed the tube aside, and rolled up the parchment. Thorne Albright grants to Alpha Elara of Ashfang Hollow direstone lands and holdings, field, tower, and water rights, as long as she commands them, and any winter that she remains in command. No contest. No takeback. No blood claim.”
The elder wrote and nodded. “Seal it.”
Thorne reached out his signet which was at his throat. He did not wear it now. He rubbed it in the wax beside his name. The mark set. Clean. Final.
Say you know what that is, I said.
“I know,” he said. It is that Direstone is safe in the event that I die in a ditch where no one looks after me.
I wanted to hit him. I would have liked to pull him into a chair and tie him down. Instead I stood still. Because you believe that you can only pay by dying.
“It is one way,” he said. “There are others. I will try those first.”
Vessa pushed off the wall. “This is stupid.”
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Chapter 274
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“Probably,” he said. When I put on a crown I was good at stupid. Perhaps I will be more able to do without
one.
Mira shifted her weight. “Where do you go.”
“Out,” he said. “Past Wyrmshade. Through the den country. Anywhere my name opened the door to men that had not earned it. I close those doors.”
I shook my head. “You are not a ghost. You cannot enter every shadow, And turn it light.
“I can start,” he said. I can tear the teeth out of the ones I fed.
Elder Briar plunged in his pen. “Witnesses to the transfer.”
“I witness,” Vessa said.
“I witness,” Mira said.
The older made them two lines. He slid the book to me. “Record accepts. Alpha, sign here.”
I took the pen. The spot cut like a tooth. I wrote my name. The final stroke rolled and lay. My chest tightened.
Thorne watched my hand. He did not blink much. He resembled an individual who had conditioned himself
not to run.
I set the pen down. You do not walk out and name it a gift. You snap this to your own birds and me with the piece of news that I drove you out of business.
“Let them talk,” he said. “They already do.”
Then get them to talk to your face, I said. “Stand with me at the ring. Say the words in daylight.”
“I will,” he said. “Then I go.”
you abandon
Vessa crossed her arms. And useless to me in the wild, No second. Take two from Dawn. Quiet ones. The sort that drag your legs out of holes that you get into.
He shook his head. “No guards.”
Mira snorted, “You are not a boy playing hero. Thou hast a bearer when thy pride hath sprung a leg–broke,
He looked at me, “Order it if you want.”
“I will not chain you,” I said. “But I do not send you alone.”
He sighed. “One. Choose her.”
“Fenna,” I said.
He blinked. “The maid.”
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I said: she volunteered when nobody would. She notices the little things of which men are ignorant. Nothing can purchase her with kindly words.
Vessa grinned. “Also, she stabs with spoons.”
Thorne rubbed his mouth. “Fine. Fenna. But no more.”
Mira nodded. “I will teach her to move quiet.”
Elder Briar girded a ribbon round the deed. “The paper is finished.” He looked at Thorne. Would you like to leave Direstone a letter.
Thorne’s jaw tightened. “No. They get actions. Not words.”
I went far enough to sense his exhaled breath. then present me something before thou goest.
He waited.
“Truth,” I said. Is it that you fain go to punish yourself. Or because to remain makes staying more difficult.
“Both,” he said. I could not swear again, And feign the ancient screams when I slumber.
I swallowed. “What do you owe me.”
“My back when you walk,” he said. “My name on your orders. My life were that they keep your hands clean.
I did not want to hear that. I did not want fresh ghosts at my table. I had no wish of the flavor of grief in my soup. I had the words in my teeth.
“Ring the hall,” I said. “We do this now.”
The ring filled fast. Boots. Murmur. No drums. The tiny bowl fire still burned at the infirmary. A second fire was here as well. Wolves felt it with two fingers, and went on. Simple, Honest.
I stepped into the circle. “Hear this. Until this war and this winter is past Direstone lands to my mark. Thorne goes to shut doors his name Which opens to our foes. His oath stands. His command does not.”
Garron was looking at me, not Thorne. He looked at my face in search of fissures. He found none.
Thorne turned toward my left, and looked into the hall. He did not raise his voice. He did not need to. And now that you bear my colours you bear hers. Avoiding her line, you break mine. When you say I left because she is weak, go down to the ring and I will make you feel how that mouth is wrong when its on the ground.
Somewhere in the back a laugh barked. It died fast.
Mira lifted her shield. Whoever wishes to put it to the test, come out. I have time.”
No one moved.
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Eden raised a parchment. “Notice to border seats. Direstone transfer is taken. All the taxes and duties change at the behest of Alpha Elara at once.
Jory poked through with a sack of bread. He knocked a heel into the hand of Thorne. “For the road,” he said. “It is dry. Like your humor.”
Thorne huffed. “Thank you.”
He turned to me. He was too near and my chest ached all the more. Shall I say anything more.
“Say when you come back,” I said.
He turned to yard and the slender moon. “When the girls are safe. When the exiled run out of air. When Justin is not breathing the same sky as you.
“Justin is yours,” I said. “You owe that cut.”
“I know,” he said. “I will take it slow.”
“Take it clean,” I said.
He nodded. “Clean.”
A little pack was picked up by Vessa. Fenna will bring you water and rope and a map at the north gate. In case you lose your way, do the odor of bad choices.
He smiled for real that time. “You love me.”
“Stop talking,” she said.
He looked back at the circle. Any fools last rites, Elder.
Elder Briar kept his pen low. “I wrote enough today. Please do not get me to write your finish.
The ring broke into motion. Wolves peeled away to posts. The yard noise returned. The world continued to move owing to our telling.
He stayed. I stayed. Between us there was too much.
You must not make a fair shot at the expense of a kid, I said.
“Never,” he said.
I said, ‘do not make bargains to feel holy.
“Never,” he said.
Fall, and I will get ye back what belongest to me and cast away the rest, I said.
“Good,” he said. “I hate clutter.”
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We breathed another breath in it. Then he reached for my hand. He did not lift it to his mouth. He flipped it and rubbed my palm flat against his chest. his heart beat big. Fast. Steady.
“Say the thing,” he said.
“What thing,” I said.
The one which will have me walking away, and still hear you when the wind is high, he said.
I took a breath and held it. “You already know it.”
He waited.
“I love you,” I said. I love you and I make a choice of the chair. Had I to make the same choice tomorrow, I should re–select it. You are not a chain. You are not a crown. You make difficult things easier, you are a man. Return when the difficult is accomplished or when in need of assistance in accomplishing it.
He shut his eyes as the words hurt him and paid him at once. He opened them. That will be the last sendoff I will ever see.
“Do not make me wrong,” I said.
He let my hand go. He stepped back. He looked at the window again. The yard. The road. The night.
Mira moved aside. Vessa did not look at him. Jory brushed his eyes with his wrist, and said it was sweat. Elder Briar simulated a pen mending.
Thorne unstrapped the tube of leather and handed it under his arm. One last order, before I turn into a horrible listener.
“Say it,” I said.
Say to Fenna, kick me in case I would be noble, said he.
“She already planned to,” I said.
“Good,” he said.
He walked to the door. He patted with two fingers the little bowl flame, and his head. He did not say a prayer.
He did not need one.
I called after him. “Thorne.”
He turned. The hall was quieted down unnecessarily.
“Do not look back,” I said.
He smiled. “Bossy.”
“Always,” I said.
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Chapter 274
He nodded, and began to descend the steps. He did not look back.
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There was a breath at the threshold he paused. Instead he turned his back to the yard where Fenna was waiting with a pack and a face that implied she would stab him in case he objected. He swiveled his head a
little to show his mouth. Without effort his voice was carried.
You turned out to be the woman that I did not deserve.
